Luke 6:5

And He said unto them, That the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

It was on the first Sabbath after the second day of Passover that this happened. For on that day the sheaves of the first fruits of the field were offered to the Lord, and the Jews reckoned the Sabbaths until Pentecost from this day, for which reason the latter festival was known also as the Feast of Weeks. Jesus was walking through the crop, which was now in full ear and ready for cutting. The ancient paths were usually in the nature of short cuts, and were apt to lead across some man's land. But according to ancient custom, no man thought of plowing these up. The field was tilled on either side of the path, and the grain sometimes encroached on the path, but the path itself belonged to the public. As the Lord was walking along with His disciples, the latter began to pull out spikes of the ripe grain and to rub the ears between the palms of their hands to extract the kernels. This was permitted according to the Law, Deuteronomy 23:25. But the Pharisees, some of whom were present as usual in order to spy on the Lord, made this innocent act a sin against the Third Commandment, looking upon the pulling of stalks as harvesting and upon the removing of the hulls as threshing and cooking. Note: This attitude is characteristic also of modern sticklers for the so-called sanctity of the Sabbath, or Sunday. Instead of teaching the proper observance of the New Testament holiday according to the sense of the Bible, which Luther has so beautifully expressed in the explanation of the Third Commandment, they suspect base motives and objects in matters which are left absolutely to the decision of Christian liberty. The Pharisees at once attacked the disciples, but always with the point directed against Jesus. They accused them of profaning the Sabbath. Nothing would have pleased them more than if Jesus would have taken up the challenge and argued concerning the fine points of distinction between the various forms of work permitted on the Sabbath. Instead of that, the Lord turns the tables on them by challenging their knowledge of Scriptures. His words, not unmixed with irony, contain a sharp rebuke: Not even this have ye read what David did; have you so little understanding of the Old Testament? His reference is to 1 Samuel 21:6. There it is related of David that he did indeed go into the house of the Lord, into the tabernacle, which probably stood on the hill between Gibeon and Nobe, and accepted some of the showbread, the bread of the Lord's countenance, which he then ate with his men, although this bread belonged to the priests only. That was a case of emergency, in which the law of love is always the highest law. The Pharisees should now draw the conclusion from the smaller to the greater. If David had this right and did not sin in taking and eating this bread, then David's Lord must have the right with much greater authority. And if this argument would not be sufficiently strong for them, they should remember that the Son of Man, Christ, the Prophet of Nazareth, is Lord also of the Sabbath. If He chooses to dispense with, or to change, the law with reference to this holiday, it is a matter entirely in His right and power, Colossians 2:16; Romans 14:5.